Assessment of land degradation and ecosystem services

For several decades now, the Sahel in general and Niger in particular have been experiencing extreme climatic variations. This situation, combined with strong human pressures, has led to a loss of vegetation cover, exposing soils to the effects of erosion, structural and structural degradation, and other factors. This results in the degradation of natural resources and a loss of value in ecosystem services. The commune of Tondikandia is not immune to this situation, hence its interest in assessing land degradation and ecosystem services. To carry out this study, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the heads of farming households in four villages in the study area, climatic and granulometric data were processed, analyzed and interpreted, and satellite images were processed to confirm the reality observed in the field. The results obtained from these analyses show that land degradation in this area is at an advanced stage, which has led to a disruption in the provision of ecosystem services.